Title:Hoya Highlight: Ron Palmese (B’00)

Ron Palmese (B’00) is the chief legal officer at Shake Shack, overseeing and managing all legal, government, and regulatory affairs. He also oversees the company’s enterprise risk management, ESG, and insurance programs as well as the company’s internal audit departments. Palmese is also a member of Shake Shack’s executive team.

Ever since he was young, Palmese knew he wanted to be a lawyer—someone to advocate for and to represent the interests of others. Palmese initially pursued a degree in government at Georgetown, with an eye toward being a litigator, but after his freshman year his interest in business led him to transfer to the McDonough School of Business. This experience provided him with a strong foundational understanding of various areas of business, including corporate, finance, marketing, and strategy.

After graduating from Georgetown with degrees in finance and international business, Palmese attended law school at St. John’s University. After three rigorous years, including serving as the editor-in-chief of the school’s Law Review, he started his legal career at Mayer Brown in the finance department where he worked on commercial bank transactions, acquisition financing, and stock and bond deals. While he enjoyed this work, Palmese was interested in receiving the broadest transactional exposure, which led him to lateral to the law firm Proskauer Rose, where he was able to expand his practice to also include mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and public company representation.

After eight years at law firms, Palmese was hired as the first general counsel for the Union Square Hospitality Group, where Palmese built the foundation for an in-house legal department, developed best practices, and forged relationships with all his stakeholders. His most memorable professional experience to date was leading the IPO process for Shake Shack, the company’s then-emerging growth business, which enabled it to become a publicly traded company. Palmese’s favorite part of his current role at Shake Shack is the diversity of the role, where he is a true generalist—with work ranging from contract negotiations, managing employee relations, international licensing, and public company filings—he gets to do a little of everything.

Palmese embodies the Georgetown value of people for others by volunteering his time with the Downtown United Soccer Club, a not-for-profit youth soccer club in NYC. In his various roles at the club, including as a board member, he works to make the club’s vision—to provide a world-class youth soccer experience in state-of-the-art facilities to all who want to play—a reality.

Palmese was drawn to Georgetown for a variety of reasons, including its Jesuit influence, strong academics, competitive sports programs, and location in the heart of Washington, DC. As a sports enthusiast, Palmese played club tennis and soccer, and attended Hoya basketball and other sporting events. Palmese was heavily involved in student government throughout his four years at Georgetown, having served as GUSA class representative in his first three years, and culminating with him being elected student body president for his senior year. Palmese’s platform included advocating on behalf of his peers, improving the Leavey Center, increasing corporate funding on campus, and developing strong relationships with the administration. His election as GUSA president was “one of the happiest moments of [his] life,” which capped a whirlwind campaign where Palmese went door to door across campus and met hundreds upon hundreds of fellow students and connected with them on a personal level and on topics that mattered to them.

During his time at Georgetown, Palmese built on his values of hard work and commitment, having graduated cum laude. He also met some of his best friends in life, and recently was on campus with many of them for his 25-year reunion. The religious aspect of Georgetown helped him stay connected to his Catholic faith while away from home and family, and also drew his two brothers to the school, who followed in Palmese’s footsteps to the Georgetown McDonough.

To current students and alumni alike, Palmese advises that success is achieved when opportunity meets preparation. While you might be at the right place at the right time, without putting in the work and building a positive reputation, you won’t be able to seize the opportunity fully, he says. Palmese also stresses that it’s essential to balance taking your education and other pursuits seriously with enjoying your time and making memories in college and beyond.